Professor Kent Buse joins The George Institute to direct programme focused on creating healthier societies
The George Institute for Global Health is delighted to announce that Professor Kent Buse joins the Institute as Director of the Healthier Societies programme.
As one of the core areas of Strategy 2025 which guides the Institute’s growth and development over the next five years, the Healthier Societies programme harnesses the power of governments, markets and communities to improve health and create healthier societies.
Kent’s extensive experience in policy engagement will drive results by focusing on policy and interventions that can have the greatest impact on health outcomes at a population level, and by addressing the broader determinants of health such as food supply, transport, gender, socioeconomic determinants of health, and the built environment.
Professor Anushka Patel, Vice Principal Director and Chief Scientist of The George Institute, said:
“The George Institute has always been about research that is practical, near-term and impactful. Our Healthier Societies focus recognises the crucial role that society, from governments to markets to communities, play. We’re thrilled that someone of Kent’s stature and expertise will be leading the Healthier Societies programme, leveraging our global research and insights to fight some of the world’s biggest health challenges: chronic disease and injury.”
Kent joins us from UNAIDS where he has spent the last 12 years managing multi-stakeholder global health collaborations in diverse political settings. Notably, he led the development of UNAIDS’ first vision and mission statements, represented UNAIDS in negotiations of United Nations General Assembly Political Declarations and on a number of global processes, including the Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Goal 3 (‘Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages’).
He is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Global Health 50/50, an advocacy and accountability initiative to drive gender equality in global health. It has produced three flagship reports on the state of gender in global health organisations based on a unique, interactive, data platform covering 200 groups. The initiative has won wide-reaching praise, including from The Lancet, British Medical Journal, and the Financial Times. Together with his policy-analytic perspective, Kent brings a rights, gender, equity and accountability lens to research across the Institute.
“I’m looking forward to collaborations to generate and strategically leverage a range of evidence that will lead to the implementation of equity-oriented policy to improve population health”, said Professor Buse.
Find out more about The George Institute’s Healthier Societies programme.
Follow Kent on Twitter @kentbuse.
